Politically Direct: Sen. Daylin Leach discusses gun laws

NORRISTOWN — In the wake of last week’s tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Sen. Daylin Leach (D – 17th Dist.) believes that something must be done to regulate firearms and make it much more difficult for the weapons to get into the hands of those who should not have access to guns.

“The tragedy in Connecticut has been getting a lot of attention and is the most recent gun tragedy that we’ve had, but it’s only the most recent of a long string of them,” said Leach. “There are a number of different causes of this, and there are a number of different things we can do about this.”

Two pieces of legislation can dramatically limit the possibility of future tragedies from occurring, Leach said. The first would permit a person to purchase only one gun per month. The second would require all lost or stolen guns to be reported within 48 hours, or the registered owner would be criminally liable if the gun is later used in a crime. The senator also said he or a fellow legislator will introduce both bills “in the next couple of weeks,” and they would help to eliminate the “easy availability of guns to people who should not have them.”

The impact of the bills on law-abiding citizens who have guns for, among other reasons, hunting, target practice or protection would be minimal, Leach said. However, the proposed legislation would make it much more difficult for guns to illegally get on the street through straw purchases.

“These two bills do not depend on criminals choosing to comply,” Leach said. “Even if a criminal wants to buy guns, he can’t because the law-abiding citizen, which is the gun dealer, has refused to sell dozens of guns at a time to a straw purchaser. It would be the law.”

While the legislation would make it harder for guns to end up in the hands of criminals, Leach is adamant that he is in no way a proponent of the elimination of guns or making gun ownership illegal.

“No one is trying to take everyone’s guns away,” he said. “You have a right to have a gun for hunting. You have a right to have a gun to protect your family. You have a right to have a gun for target shooting. No one credible ... is trying to take any of those away from a law-abiding citizen.”

Leach also briefly spoke about other factors, most notably mental health issues, that may have an impact on preventing future tragedies, saying that it’s “not just a gun issue,” and he challenged legislators to be more proactive about mental health awareness.

“Many of the same people who oppose any additional gun legislation and say, ‘Well, it’s a mental health issue. It’s not a gun issue,’ voted for Gov. Corbett’s budget, which cut $110 million for mental health treatment,” Leach said. “If you’re coming on and say, ‘Don’t pass gun legislation and let’s deal with it as a mental health issue’ then at least vote for mental health funding.”

Finally, Leach said that although many people may be critical of discussing such legislation so soon after the tragic shooting in Newtown, Conn., he believes that now is the ideal time for such a discussion, because people are still hyper-aware of the issue.

“This is the time that everyone is focused on this issue,” said Leach. “We should talk about this issue while we have everyone’s attention before something ... diverts our attention and we don’t want to think about it anymore because it is a hard thing to talk about.

“This isn’t about politicizing it. No one is trying to gain votes or something. The election is over. This is about trying to change policy,” he said. “This is a time when we have people’s attention to talk about the wisdom of our gun policy in this country and I think it would be malpractice on our part not talk about it at this time.”